Girl from the North Country fair

Clawgrass Example - Using Clawhammer in a Bluegrass context. Playing Clawhammer in a Bluegrass setting requires the banjo player to understand all the complexities of playing in a Bluegrass Ensamble. You are playing as a &#34Unit&#34 and everyone&#39s job in the band is to do what ever it takes to make the featured soloist, be it a vocalist or someone taking a break on their instruments. It forces the clawhammer banjo player to play their banjo in several different ways instead of using just a right hand clawhammer pattern. Lead, Backup, Percsussive chopping, playing harmonies, counter melodies, Licks and tag licks, etc.etc. You have to live by the five &#34T&#39s&#34 Taste, Touch, Tone, Timing and Tuning and play with precision to get all the value from a note to get it to ring clean and clear. This can be accomplished with a banjo that is set up for this style of ensemble work like my Deering Clawgrass Model Banjos or like how Adam Hurt pulls his clean note playing and his great softer tone from his Enoch/Dobson old time banjos. The point is not how many notes that you put into a tune or song but making each note count for all the musical statement value you can get out of it. This tune is an old Bob Dylan tune that Emory Lester and I recorded about ten years ago on our Acoustic Rising Album. It is a good example of what I am talking about......and it is also an example of playing blues licks while playing in the relative minor key of C#minor against Emory&#39s E major tuning using Double E tuning (Double C tuning capoed at the fourth fret) and playing out of the third fret above the capo to catch the C#Minor position. Enjoy!